SmogRank / History / City race

Cities in United States, worst air first, day by day

Each measured city's average over the 30 days to every day since January 2023, worst first. Find your own city to follow it through the race, or keep to one country.

CountriesCities
The 30 days to29 Mar 2023 That day's board

The worst cities in United States for PM2.5 over the 30 days to 29 Mar 2023: Albany 18.3 µg/m³, Houston 15.6 µg/m³ and Phenix City 15.3 µg/m³.

  1. 1AlbanyGeorgia18.3
  2. 2HoustonTexas15.6
  3. 3Phenix CityAlabama15.3
  4. 4Coconut CreekFlorida14.9
  5. 5BaytownTexas14.4
  6. 6PasadenaTexas13.8
  7. 7Missouri CityTexas13.3
  8. 8MontgomeryAlabama13.2
  9. 9EdinburgTexas13.2
  10. 10RedfordMichigan13.2
  11. 11Lincoln ParkMichigan13.0
  12. 12SulphurLouisiana12.9
  13. 13HattiesburgMississippi12.9
  14. 14Mission BendTexas12.9
  15. 15Warner RobinsGeorgia12.6
  16. 16JacksonMississippi12.4
  17. 17TrussvilleAlabama12.1
  18. 18AugustaGeorgia12.0
  19. 19LaredoTexas12.0
  20. 20Ferry PassFlorida11.8

+ 397 more cities, the next at 11.8 µg/m³

Not counted on this day, too few days measured: Deer Park since 29 Mar 2023, Columbus since 8 Mar 2023, Fort Lauderdale since 5 Feb 2023 and 18 more cities. Days missing from the source archive fall in this window, so fewer countries are counted.

30 days7 days
GoodModerateSensitive groupsUnhealthyVery unhealthyHazardousWHO 24-hour guideline, 15 µg/m³Fades where it stood: not counted that day

A city's number is its average over the 30 days, shown only when 21 of them were measured (5 of 7 on the 7-day race), the same minimum as the 30- and 7-day boards. A city whose monitors go quiet fades out where it stood rather than sliding down, so a gap never reads as cleaner air. Some large countries are thin or missing because their monitors' licences don't allow reuse. How we rank.

Not covered: the government monitoring networks of China and Turkey, which publish only on their own websites. We are building the reader for China's network. Turkey's network doesn't answer requests from outside the country, so we can't read it. Most cities there are missing from this board, not clean. Why.